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[Pav:3d]

More Bad Company 2 news from the Developers Blog. In a nut shell: Medic works just like BF2 medic. You get health regen.

Quote

A quick introduction is in order, since this is my first Battlefield Blog post. I’m Alan Kertz, though many of you already know me as Demize99. As Gameplay Designer on Bad Company 2 it’s my goal to give you insight into the design process on Bad Company 2 and give you the direct inside scoop on all the gameplay details.

So what are my Battlefield Credentials? I’ve competed in Battlefield 1942 and Vietnam clan matches alongside being a mapper and a modder. I joined DICE over 3 years ago and since the I’ve worked as a designer on Battlefield 2142 and the original Bad Company. And now it’s my privilege to be developing Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Let’s start off this series of gameplay blog post with some in depth detail on Bad Company 2’s teamplay based health systems.

When a soldier really needs to be restored to health fast he turns to his Medic teammates. The Medic is a special breed of soldier, able to fight just as hard as their brothers in arms, but also dedicated healers. They keep their teammates in the fight as long as possible and to bring them back into the fight when they're down. In Bad Company 2 the medic has two tools to use to keep his teammates healthy.

The first tool is the Medkit, a portable first aid station that the Medic can deploy to heal the soldiers around him in the middle of combat. The Medkit begins working immediately and keeps working until the medical supplies are depleted. It also works in combat, so a soldier near a Medkit can duck behind cover to quickly heal up and be ready to get back in the fight. Just be careful where you deploy the Medkit, as even enemy soldiers will receive its healing benefits.

The second tool is the Defibrillator, also known as the Shock Paddles or the Defib for short. The Medic can use the Defib on his recently incapacitated teammates to bring them immediately back to full fighting strength. The Defib allows the medic to keep his squad and team together and fighting. In a pinch the Defib's electric shock can even be administered to healthy enemy soldiers, instantly incapacitating them.

Bad Company 2 introduces a system we call Out of Combat Healing. Like many features in Battlefield it's a reflection of a real soldier's world. Every soldier learns some basic first aid so he can patch himself up and get back into the fight. In Bad Company 2 we represent a soldier's first aid ability via the Out of Combat Heal. A soldier who's been wounded in a fight but survived will slowly heal himself. Out of Combat Healing is a not a fast process. Unlike your Medic teammate it's not going to save you in the middle of a firefight, but it will keep you from bleeding out somewhere alone on the Battlefield.

Edited by Pav3d, 20 June 2009 - 14:43.

[TunguskaM1]

The health system is very well done.

[TehKiller]

I think im gonna say completely the opposite. Health regen sux and is proven numerous times. In a BF style game it is gonna suck even more (luckily this is for BC2 from what I understood so thats good...as long as they dont plague BF3 with this shit im gonna be happy). This Out of Combat shit they say "a reflection of real world" is in the simple most words bullsh*t. If they wanted this "reflection of real world" then just give them a first aid kit that will heal a proportion of your health (and ofc the only way to again obtain it would be to get a ammo refill)

Edited by TehKiller, 20 June 2009 - 17:00.

[CommanderJB]

Health regeneration has been used in multiple games, most of which have garnered excellent critical appraisal and have large fan bases. That 'health regen sucks and is proven numerous times' is your opinion, and while I don't remove your right to it (far from it) a large number of people seem to disagree with you.
As for me, I'll wait until I've played with it until I pass any judgement whatsoever.

[TehKiller]

IDK but in most of these health regen systems people bitch about someone taking 2 kilos of lead and survive as their wounds miraculously heal up in a matter of seconds. Veterans hate it and this appraisal is only from casual players and commercial sites like Gamespot

[Chyros]

Health regen is a very good implementation IMO, it eliminates those bullshit medikits you have to pick up and makes the game flow much better. Granted that it is sometimes implemented rather simplistically - for instance, in CoD 4, the system works as follows - after five seconds of not being hurt, your health returns. All of it - instantly. This could have been polished a bit more - for example a gradual regeneration would work wonders IMO, but even so it's a massive improvement over health bar systems. It allows lone players to face opponents time and time again for example, eliminating part of the problems of killed people respawning practically next to their killers.

[TheDR]

Chyros, on 21 Jun 2009, 13:10, said:

Health regen is a very good implementation IMO, it eliminates those bullshit medikits you have to pick up and makes the game flow much better. Granted that it is sometimes implemented rather simplistically - for instance, in CoD 4, the system works as follows - after five seconds of not being hurt, your health returns. All of it - instantly. This could have been polished a bit more - for example a gradual regeneration would work wonders IMO, but even so it's a massive improvement over health bar systems. It allows lone players to face opponents time and time again for example, eliminating part of the problems of killed people respawning practically next to their killers.

It works in CoD 4 because the maps are very small and you normally end up defending on your own but in the Battlefield Series its all about the Medics and working closely with the medics because they can revive you after your dead and heal you. No one will end playing medic because people have regen and no one will get revived. This is just the Battlefield developers thinking that because its a popular system it will work in there game, i honestly think they are very wrong.
Health Kits wouldn't work in CoD 4 because its not a class based game and its mainly just an arena type game. BF games are heavily classed based and require a hell load of team work and now the medic is less useful, which is a shame. Health regen makes just as much sense as ammo regen and they would never put ammo regen in because the support class part in the team would become useless because no one would ever need ammo. But for some reason they see giving everyone regen health as a problem.
No doubt plenty of BF fans will be disliking this and i can only see it as an attempt to steal fans from the CoD games, shame on you Dice.

Edited by TheDR, 21 June 2009 - 12:31.

[RaiDK]

Quote

Bad Company 2 introduces a system we call Out of Combat Healing. Like many features in Battlefield it's a reflection of a real soldier's world. Every soldier learns some basic first aid so he can patch himself up and get back into the fight. In Bad Company 2 we represent a soldier's first aid ability via the Out of Combat Heal. A soldier who's been wounded in a fight but survived will slowly heal himself. Out of Combat Healing is a not a fast process. Unlike your Medic teammate it's not going to save you in the middle of a firefight, but it will keep you from bleeding out somewhere alone on the Battlefield.

That's pretty well a glorified way of saying "BC2 uses really slow autoheal".

[BeefJeRKy]

Yeah the CoD health regen system isn't too good. I think a mixed system would be best. Where waiting overtime heals you up to a percentage after which you need a medkit to return to full strength. However when you're in danger, a medkit greatly boosts your health recovery rate. As Chyros said, health regen helps players to recover in multiplayer but it shouldn't recharge as fast as in Halo or in CoD.

EDIT: @TheDr Bad Company never had maps as large as BF2's. In fact it feels alot more like an arena. This system is in Bad Company 2. Noone mentioned this for BF3.

Edited by Scope, 21 June 2009 - 12:34.

[Pav:3d]

I *think* after seeing the gameplay vid that there is % health and Im guessing you re-heal slowly. Or maybe even only up until a certain % (10-20). He did say about just patching up and being ready for battle, not fully healed etc.

Im glad this is implemented since it means that you dont need to go medic in order to survive. I hope they bring a class that throws ammo packs tho, since having a medic changes things alot.

[Pav:3d]

For those still not satisfied with the entire medal of honor series, COD 1, 2, 3, World at War, Battlefield 1942 and all its expansions, brothers in arms, wolfenstein, battlefield heroes, red orchestra and countless more WW2 FPS then you will be delighted to hear that Battlefield 1943 is coming out in less than a week

At least now with heroes and 1943 firmly out of the goddamn door they can concentrate on BC2 and BF3

Edited by Pav3d, 03 July 2009 - 22:35.

[Admiral Wesley]

I kinda like WW2 games, but definitely not as much as FPS's set around a hundred years in the future. We gotta have BF2143.

[Pav:3d]

Yeah Im sure there will be a 2143 or sth at some point.

Btw 1943 has been released on the 360 today, anyone got it/planning on getting it?

[TheDR]

The problem is if i want to play it il boot up 1942 again (But i am scared of the people who still play that game, damn they have played it for too long and are damn good at it ).
I didn't really see anything that makes it better than 1942 (Graphics just don't count in my books).

[Pav:3d]

It uses the same engine as Bad Company, so u get some destruction. I played the demo for a bit and it feels quite slow, the aiming in paticular, it doesnt just "snap" to ironsights, it takes a while, and moving while aimed is a bugger too.

they also seriously need to make ranking up harder, I killed two people and ranked up. So it was the first rank but still u had to go through a a gd few rounds in BF2 to rank up. Also in bad company i got to the top rank in about a fortnight. I remember in BF2 i spent MONTHS getting upto gunnery seargent (or w/e was the last striped rank)

It was a bit of fun tho, but I would rather play BC atm

Edited by Pav3d, 12 July 2009 - 17:58.

[Foxhound]

Pav3d, on 17 Jun 2009, 20:41, said:

40 a side? Wow. Im not looking forward to the first few spawn-and-die filled hours

It's higher than BF2's 32 a side.

Um, whoops. Didn't notice I hadn't looked at this thread in that long.

Edited by Foxhound, 12 July 2009 - 23:26.

[TehKiller]

BF2 can actually support 64 per team. DICE decided to cut it at 32 (and pretty much cut out alot of other content that was present in the demo and in the works)

[CommanderJB]

@Foxhound, I'm pretty sure that was Pav3d's point.
@TehKiller, I suspect that may well be because they realised that given the level of hardware and net capabilities in 2005 there was no way 64-a-side was going to be a pleasurable experience.

Edited by CommanderJB, 12 July 2009 - 22:33.

[TunguskaM1]

I bought 1943 and I must say its a very well made game. The maps are well designed, and there is enough action, although 32 players would be better. Anyone having a console should definitely try the game.

[TehKiller]

CommanderJB, on 12 Jul 2009, 23:32, said:

@TehKiller, I suspect that may well be because they realised that given the level of hardware and net capabilities in 2005 there was no way 64-a-side was going to be a pleasurable experience.

There isnt even to this day (limited to single core processor servers) but however back then there were more than good conditions to field 40 a side

[Pav:3d]

TunguskaM1, on 13 Jul 2009, 3:42, said:

I bought 1943 and I must say its a very well made game. The maps are well designed, and there is enough action, although 32 players would be better. Anyone having a console should definitely try the game.

Whats is your favourite class out of the 3?

Mine is the scout, u get a sniper rifle and a pistol which does an obscene amount of damage.
Also u get dynamite which is always fun to stick on the roads

[TunguskaM1]

My favorite class is the rifleman. I also like the scout, which I use alot. I love planting C4s on tanks. All the classes are nicely ballanced.

[Pav:3d]

Yeah they are, guess its easier to do with only 3 and no medic

[TunguskaM1]

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=XADitRez_H4

Just another BF moment.

[Pav:3d]

Trial period for the demo has been reset if u maxed out your half an hour before

link

Edited by Pav3d, 18 July 2009 - 15:26.